The Impact of Explicitation and Implicitation in English-Sesotho Translation Texts of Selected Financial Institutions in Lesotho ()
1. Background
English and Sesotho are official languages in Lesotho even though they do not seem to enjoy equal status in their usage. According to Baker and Prys (1998) , Sesotho is a mother-tongue language for more than 90 percent of the population. However, English is used for official communication in government and administration [including non-governmental organizations and schools]. As a result, all the financial institutions in Lesotho write their documents (brochures & Short Message/Messaging Service (SMSes)) in English only except for the Lesotho PostBank (LPB) and Standard Lesotho Bank (SLB) which provide Sesotho translations as well. The majority of their target clients (all the banks) are conversant in Sesotho. The two institutions, (LPB and SLB), might have felt the need to translate their documents with the aim of attracting more clients, as well as for the smooth run of their businesses as some of their customers cannot read and understand English. Translating their documents into the language that their customers understand was going to benefit the customers and the banks themselves as well as complying with the country’s bilingual policy. The Lesotho language policy promotes bilingualism [i.e., official bilingual national language policy (Legère et al., 2002) . This means that the policy demands that both groups should get information in the language that they understand be it English or Sesotho. During the process of translation, translators may encounter problems which often challenge their translation competence. In an attempt to overcome these challenges, translators often opt for translation strategies. These strategies include, among others, explicitation, implicitation, paraphrasing and restructuring just to mention a few. Explicitation and implicitation seem to be inherent in the translation process when translators attempt to achieve the communicative purpose of the target text. According to (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995) cited in Baker (2001) , explicitation refers to the process of presenting information into the target text which occurs only implicitly in the source text, but can be derived from the context while implicitation is a process of condensing information in the target text which is detailed in the source text. These appear to be the situation in the translation of some documents of the selected financial institutions in Lesotho namely, Lesotho PostBank and Standard Lesotho Bank. However, sometimes use of these strategies have impact on both the Source Language and Target Language groups. Addressing such impacts does not only have the potential to help translators solve translation challenges better, but also has a potential to market the banks better through the distribution of well translated texts. This study also fills the gap in literature as there is little information on explicitation and implicitation regarding English and Sesotho. This paper examines the impact of the types of explicitation and implicitation present in the selected informative texts of Lesotho PostBank brochures and Standard Lesotho Bank SMSes, both on the source and target audience.
1.1. Explicitation
Explicitation has been an ongoing topic in translation studies, featuring investigations made by scholars such as Blum-Kulka (1986) , Séguinot (1998) , Klaudy and Karoly (2005) , Saldanha (2008) , Beikian et al. (2013) , Mohatlane (2014) , Murtisari (2016) , De Metsenaere and Valandepitte (2017) and Amini et al. (2021) . According to Murtisari (2016) and Amini et al. (2021) , explicitation is generally a shift in translation from what is implicit in the source text (ST) to what is explicit in the target text (TT). In other words, explicitation is an explanation in the target text that makes the message clearer than in the source textas it tries to unfold what is hidden in the source text. This means that translators tend to give more details about the issue or point being talked about than it is in the source text. This is done based on the intended purpose of the target text. Nord (1996) posits that texts which are intended to be meaningful to their addressees are normally shaped by the translators in order to conform, as far as possible, to the situational conditions of their audiences. Even though, the study by Mohatlane (2014) focuses on explicitation on English and Sesotho translations, his differs from the current one in the sense that his challenges the proposition that explicitation is an inherent universal feature of translation. He looks at some critics which maintain that explicitation is an inherent universal feature of translation as determined by lexical and grammatical items that are implicit in the source text, checking whether these are always available in all source texts for explicitation to be reckoned as universal.
1.2. Implicitation
Although explicitation and implicitation are noticeable in translation, there seem to be little literature written on implicitation as compared to explicitation. Scholars such as Hjort-Pedersen and Faber (2010) , Becher (2011) and De Metsenaere and Vandepitte (2017) dwelled slightly on implicitation. Implicitation is observed in situations where a particular target text is less detailed than the corresponding source text (Becher, 2011) . This implies that what is stated plainly in the source text is implied or embedded in the target text. That is, implicitation compresses the information that was explicit in the source text, either by dropping some of the elements present in the source text or completely leaving them out. The use of these two strategies makes one wonder whether the audiences of the source and target texts have equal access to the same information or not. The study sets out to examine the impact of explicitation and implicitation which are exemplified in English-Sesotho translations of LPB and SLB brochures and SMSes respectively. The study looks at the translations from a functionalist point of view, using Skopos Theory as its analytical tool, and the Pragmatic Approach as a supporting theory. Skopos Theory is a purpose driven theory that stresses on the function of the target text (Munday, 2001) . Similarly, Pragmatic Approach recognizes communication as a purposeful process (Venuti, 2000) .
1.3. Types of Explicitation
Though some scholars have been interpreting the concepts explicitation and implicitation differently Murtisari (2016) and De Metsenaere and Vandepitte (2017) , scholars such as Hatim and Mason (2004) , Nida (1964) , Overas (1988) and Kamenická (2007) have considered them as some of the translation strategies which translators commonly employ during the translation process. According to Hatim and Mason (2004) , explicitation is a translation strategy that makes the message in the target text clearer than it is in the source text.
Nida (1964) considers explicitation as one of the techniques of addition, where addition is a hypernym (a word with a broad meaning that more specific words fall under; a superordinate) to explicitation while Overas (1988) sees addition as one of the strategies of explicitation. These scholars both make note of the relation between explicitation and addition, they only differ in terms of which one is the technique or strategy of the other.
Kamenická (2007) , however, puts forth that, explicitation and addition are closely related, but the distinction between them depends on their retrievability from context. Addition in translation refers to extra linguistic information in the target text which is absent in the source text, but introduced in the target text to add meaning that the translator believes will ease the comprehension of the target text readership. Holst (2015: p. 10) defines addition as a situation where “a unit of meaning is added to the target text”. This added information may vary based on whether it is meant to elaborate, draw focus on certain parts of the text or even unfold what is hidden in the source text making it clearer in the target text.
Based on the views of Nida (1964) , Overas (1988) , and Kamenická (2007) , this study therefore considers addition as one of the techniques of explicitation. This is due to the fact that, there are traces of added information in the target texts of Lesotho PostBank and Standard Lesotho Bank, making the target texts to be more detailed than the source texts. Furthermore, some of this added information seems to be retrievable in the source text while other parts are not retrievable. It is also worth noting that in this study, the researchers put forth types of additions as examples of the techniques of explicitation that seem to have contributed to the differences between the source and target texts.
1.4. Types of Implicitation
Implicitation is a technique which consists of making less detailed a text which is detailed in the source text, “relying on the context for conveying the message” (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995: p. 344) . This implies that, implicitation is replicating what is stated clearly in the source text but in a hidden manner in the target text. Hu (2015) agrees that in implicitation, what is said plainly in the source text may not be literally seen in the target text but the hidden meaning can be inferred from the text.
Implicitation may be seen in a form of omission where words, phrases, or sentences which are present in the source text may be left out in the target text, be it intentionally or unintentionally. Hatim and Munday (2004: p. 345) posit that omission can be considered as a, “deliberate or accidental absence of the source text element” in the target text. This means that during the translation process, translators may decide to leave out certain information when they have noticed or feel that the omission of such information will not distort the message.
According to Kamenická (2007) , we can talk about implicitation and omission depending on whether the information which seem to contribute to the translation shift between the source and target texts can or cannot be retrieved from the target text context. This is to say, there is a correlation between implicitation and omission, however, their difference depends on their retrievability from the context.
As indicated earlier, omission is an absence of the source text element in the target text. This simply means that, with omission there is no chance of retrieval as the element is completely left out, whereas with implicitation there is a possibility of retrieving the meaning from the target text context.
Additionally, Dimitriu (2006) points that, “…under various circumstances, translation scholars may use other synonymous terms in describing the feature of omission…this in a sense, reveals that omission may possibly take its form in other synonyms…” The synonymous terms which indicate features of omission include, among others, implicitation, reduction and deletion. This quote justifies that implicitation and omission are closely related strategies hence translators may use them as synonyms.
Based on Kamenická (2007)’s view, this study regards omission as one of the techniques of implicitation. This is because within the use of implicitation, words, phrases or sentences are often left out which signify instances of omission as such words, phrases or sentences cannot be retrieved in the target text. Again, there are instances of missing information in the target texts of Lesotho PostBank and Standard Lesotho Bank. It is therefore important to note that in this study, omission will be used as one of the techniques of implicitation. The next section focuses on the research methodology utilized in this study.
2. Research Methodology
The study is qualitative in nature since it dealt with data that was in a form of words, phrases and sentences from the source texts that were compared with their translations. Qualitative approach deals with describing, decoding and interpreting meanings of the phenomena and not the frequency of that particular phenomenon (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000) . This study adopted qualitative research paradigm because it mainly focused on the interpretation of the meanings of words and sentences in both the source and target texts. Data was gathered from the Lesotho PostBank brochures and Standard Lesotho Bank Short Message/Messaging Service (SMSes) which the researchers collected from the PostBank offices in Maseru and Mobile phones respectively. The study used five (5) brochures and ten (10) SMSes because the data extracted from 10 Short Message/Messaging Services was equivalent to the one from 5 brochures. The 5 brochures were the only readily available texts with both the source and target texts at the time of collecting data. The source and target texts were compared with the aim of identifying instances of explicitation and implicitation. The study looked at the translations from a functionalist point of view, using Skopos Theory as its analytical tool, and the Pragmatic Approach as a supporting theory. Skopos Theory is a purpose driven theory that stresses on the function of the target text. Similarly, Pragmatic Approach recognizes communication as a purposeful process.
3. Findings and Discussion
In both the brochures of Lesotho PostBank and SMSes from the Standard Lesotho Bank, instances of explicitation were observed. These were seen in the following types of addition: elaborating additions, explicating additions, new information and meaning shift. Instances of implicitations observed were of two categories, namely: semantic and syntactic implicitations. However, this study focused mainly on the strategies with minimal impact and those with significant impact on the audience.
3.1. Strategies with Minimal Impact
This section outlines the strategies of explicitation and implicitation which were regarded to have minimal impact on the target audience. Minimal impact in this context refers to explicitations and implicitations with a slight effect on the target text, which does not cause any inconvenience on the target group.
(a) Elaborating additions
Elaborating additions are additions in the target text which give a more detailed explanation of a word, sentence or a segment of a sentence in a source text, so that the target audience may get a better understanding of the translated text. Abdel-Hafiz (2004) explains that, elaboration occurs if implicit performative acts in the source language are turned into explicit acts in the target language. The following extracts are examples of elaborating additions and sections in bold indicate added information:
Example 1
ST: The fixed amount accumulates interest over an agreed investment period.
TT: Chelete eo e tla tsoala ho latela nako e lumellanoeng lipakeng tsa banka le motseteli [LPB].
Example 2
· ST: It is most suitable for people and businesses that require self-service banking.
· TT: E fana ka litšebeletso tse ntle haholo ho batho ba likhoebo tse hlokang ho iketsetsa litšebeletso li sa thusoe ke basebeletsi ba banka [LPB].
In example (1), the added information is lipakeng tsa banka le motseteli which is translated as “between the bank and the investor”. The difference brought by this added information between the source text and target text is that; in the source text, the clause is embedded in the sentence, whereas in the target text, the clause unfolds the sentence by specifying the parties that have an agreement of the investment. As a result, the added clause makes the target text message to be clearer than the source text message so that the target audience can understand the text.
In example 2, the clause, li sa thusoe ke basebeletsi ba banka which can be translated as “without the assistance of the bank personnel” explains the word “self-service” with several words which makes it clearer for the target audience to understand the people who are recommended to open this form of account. This added information says more about the word “self-service”. Without this addition, the message would still be delivered even though it was likely that some of the target audience would not understand the text well. These additions are said to have minimal impact on the source text audience because the added information does not have any force on the text, but rather clarifies what was implicit in the source text. It makes it easier for the target audience to comprehend the message implied by the word explained in the target text. An example can be drawn from example 1, where the phrase lipakeng tsa banka le motseteli meaning, “between the bank and the investor” was used to unfold the meaning of the source text word “agreed”. Here, the phrase specifies the two parties that are in agreement. In example 2, on the other hand, li sa thusoe ke basebeletsi ba banka “without the assistance of the bank personnel” seems to be elaborating on the material which is already rendered in the target text in order to make the text too specific. Jacobsen (2002: p. 183) stipulates that additions of this kind serve to elaborate on information which is already rendered once in the target text, “to create a greater degree of specificity”. The meaning of li sa thusoe ke basebeletsi ba banka “without the assistance of the bank personnel” is contained in the phrase ho iketsetsa litšebeletso (self-service) which comes just before it on the translated version. However, this does not negatively affect the message let alone to make it redundant. These types of additions can therefore be said to have minimal impact on the source audience because, their presence do not make the source text audience to feel like they are denied certain information. “The information that passes between cultures through news agencies is not only translated in the interlingual sense, it is reshaped, edited, synthesized and transformed for the consumption of a new set of readers” (Bielsa & Bassnett, 2009: p. 2) . This in a sense justifies the fact that a text can be clarified by the use of elaborations just like in the above examples in order for that text to be easily understood by its readers. The additions can therefore be considered to have made relevant contribution as the maxim of relevance requires that one should strive to make his/her contributions relevant to the current exchange (Venuti, 2000) .
(b) Explicating additions
The second type of additions present in Lesotho Post Bank and Standard Lesotho Bank documents is explicating additions. These are the types of additions that make linguistic elements that were hidden in the source text, to be unfolded and made clearer in the target text. This means that explicating additions clarify the target text information in a more comprehensive manner by giving some sort of an explanation of the source text information, so that the target reader may understand the text better. In support, Murtisari (2016) , earlier explained explicitation as a shift in translation from what is implicit in the source text to what is explicit in the target text. This means that this type of additions intends to make the target text message clearer than in the source text as they tend to unfold what is wrapped in the source text. Additionally, Adel et al. (2015) stipulate that explicitation is a stylistic translation technique which consists of making explicit in the target language what remains implicit in the source language because it is apparent from either the context or the situation. In simpler terms, the information added in the target text is not totally new, but it is implied in the source text; but stated clearly in the target text. The following examples indicate instances of explicating additions and they are in bold.
Example 3
· ST: The minimum monthly contribution is M50 and investment period is from 6, 12 up to 60 months.
· TT: Chelete eo moreki a ka qalang letsete la hae kaeonakehotlohakabonyane Maloti a mashome a mahlano (M50) kapaho feta, meletsetelena le ka nka likhoeli tse 6, 12, 24, 36 ho fihla ho likhoeli tse 60 [LPB].
Example 4
· ST: We are experiencing technical challenges that are impacting all channels. We are working tirelessly and apologies for the inconvenience. For more information, call 2221 2221.
· TT: Ho na le ho khaoha ho etsahalang ho sitisang bareki ho sebelisa likarete kapa marang-rang, mme re sebetsa ka matla ho lokisa boemo bona. Re kopa tšoarelo ke hona [SLB].
When looking at example 3, one sees that the phrase kapa ho feta which is translated as (or more) as well as the numbers 24 and 36 are added information. This phrase and numbers explain what is already present in the source text which is not written clearly or in words like it is done in the target text. This added information present in the target text gives the target text audience privilege as they are aware that they are not cornered to pay monthly contribution of M50, they can still opt for high amounts. The inclusion of 24 and 36 months may also clarify the issue of the gap between 12 to 60 months. Klaudy and Karoly (2005) indicate that explicitation may take place when a source language word which has a more general meaning is substituted by a target language word or expression with a more specific meaning or when a meaning of a source language word covers various units in the target language. Klaudy and Karoly’s statement justify the use of this added information as it unfolds that people are not restricted to pay monthly contribution of only M50. These words can also be said to make the statement more specific than in the source text where it is general not leaving a room for extra monthly contribution. This also goes in line with the maxim of quantity that states that one’s contributions should be as informative as required (Venuti, 2000) .
In example 4, the clause—ho sitisang bareki ho sebelisa likarete kapa marang-rang which can be translated as “denying customers to use cards or internet”, unpacks the meaning embedded in the words “all channels” by outlining the channels that have technical challenges. This addition informs the target text audience of some channels that may hinder them from performing their transactions. Moreover, due to this listed channels in the target text, it is likely that the target text audience may consider going to the bank for withdrawals instead of using cards and the internet as they have been informed that they will not operate. The source text audience, on the other hand, may not think of going to the bank for withdrawals as their text has said “all channels” which may somehow lead them to thinking that there are no services that deal with cash withdrawals completely. This therefore has slight impact on the source text audience as it may hinder them from performing their daily monetary duties.
Generally, these additions (elaborating and explicating) make the target texts to be easily comprehended by their audience as they unfold the information stated implicitly in the source text. They are also found to have minimal impact on the source text audience because they do not temper with its message, but tend to broaden the understanding of target audience.
3.2. Implicitation Strategy with Minimal Impact
This type of implicitation compresses what is explicit in the source text by making it general in the target text. Two types of implicitation identified in Lesotho Post Bank and Standard Lesotho Bank information included semantic and syntactic ones. However, semantic implicitation was the only one which was considered to have minimal impact on the audience. Instances of implicitations were more in Standard Lesotho Bank information as compared to Lesotho Post Bank.
Semantic Implicitation
Similar to elaborating and explicating additions where the meaning can be inferred in the source text, semantic implicitation also provides information which can be retrieved from the source text. However, unlike explicating and elaborating additions which make the target text clearer, semantic implicitation leaves the source text clear and makes the target text hidden. This is because this type of implicitation compresses what is explicit in the source text by making it general in the target text.
Krogsgaard (2016: p. 208) puts forth that, “…The main task of the translator is to facilitate understanding between the author of the source text and the recipient of the target text, rather than to convey the exact content and form of the source text. This is where implicitation may be relevant, and, consequently, it is a reasonable assumption that implicitation will occur in translation…”.
The above statement justifies that, some implicitations are necessary, especially if the message that was to be portrayed by the omitted words can be retrieved from the target text. This further strengthens the fact that some implicitations might be regarded to have minimal impact ifinformation couldbe retrieved from the given text. The following examples show implicitation with minimal impact and information in bold show words and phrases that were affected:
Example 5
· ST: We noted that some Debit Cards are declining on ATMs and we are working tirelessly to resolve this. In the interim, make use of instant Money, POS, or Credit Card.
· TT: Re hlokometse hore tse ling tsa likarete ha li sebetse ha joale li ATMng, re sebetsa ka thata ho lokisa boemo bona. ______ Sebelisa Instant Money, POS kapa Credit Card [SLB].
Example 6
· ST: New Standard Lesotho Bank ATM at Formosa Textile Company now operational in the Thetsane Industrial Area. Working harder to move you forward!
· TT: Standard Lesotho Bank e khakotse ATM e ncha Formosa Textile Company, Ha Thetsane. Re hatela pele [SLB].
In example (5), the clause, In the interim, present in the source text is omitted in the target text. This may be due to the structural differences of the languages in question as the presence and absence of this clause have no impact on the semantic meaning of both the source and target text. In addition, Hatim (2001: p. 107) indicates that, “languages differ, not only in the patterns of structures employed, but also in the values assigned to those patterns”. Although the aforementioned clause is missing in the target text, the text still serves its purpose of offering relevant information to the target language just as the second rule of Skopos indicates that, “A TT is an offer of information in a target community (TC) and target language (TL) concerning an offer of information in a source community (SC) and source language (SL)” (Reiss & Vermeer, 1984: p. 119) .
Furthermore, the translator might have left out the words intentionally because the meaning of the clause can be derived from the target text. Hu (2015) signifies that, sometimes to avoid repetition of words/expressions, some units can be omitted. This is to say, implicitation occurs when the translator tries to avoid repeating words and expressions in the target text. In the case of example (5) above, the translator might have felt like the inclusion of the clause in the interim will be a repetition as the message is embedded in the word sebelisa (use) in the target text.
Based on the information given in example 6, one observes that the phrase Industrial Area is dropped in the target text while working harder to move you forward has been compressed to re hatela pele (we are moving forward). The omission of Industrial Area does not distort the meaning since the name of the company which is “Formosa Textile Company” and the area in which the company is located are in the target text. Similarly, the phrase re hatela pele does not distort the message though it is ambiguous. This ambiguity is due to the fact that the translator has included both the target audience and the company in the text by generalising the separate words ‘we’ and ‘you’ from the source text, to make them re in the target text. Though this ambiguity causes an imbalance of some sort between the source and target texts, it does not constitute to the implicit text, causing significant impact on either of the audiences. This is because the intended message which the target text is expected to convey is encompassed within the text as the target audience has two interpretations to the text. The first interpretation is that the bank is moving forward and the second one is that both the bank and the target text audience are moving forward. This ambiguity can therefore be said to have minimal impact because in the end, both the source and target text audiences have the same information despite the fact that the target text audience has extra information which is brought by ambiguity in the text. Given that the omitted sections do not deprive the target text audience information which is similar to the one given to the source text audience, these omissions are regarded to have minimal impact on the audience. The next section deals with strategies with significant impact.
3.3. Explicitation Strategies with Significant Impact
Significant impact in this case is used to refer to explicitations and implicitations with great effect on the target groups or banks, which might cause some inconveniences. The blank spaces seen below indicate lack of information in the source text while the words in bold show new information.
(a) New information additions
According to Jacobsen (2002) , the effect of these additions is that they increase the force of original utterance, so that what appears to be a straight answer to a relatively straight question becomes a firm declaration. In this context, these additions introduce information that is absent in the source text.
Example 7
· ST: ____________________________________
· TT: Nakong ea ha letsete le eso butsoe, motseteli h’a lumelloa ho ntša chelete letseteng lena ho fihlela ha nako ea ho butsoa hoa lona e fihlile, e leng nako e lumellanoeng ke banka le motseteli [SLB].
Example 8
· ST: The annual SLB Car and Home Expo is happening this coming Saturday at Maseru Mall, 10am. Come find out more on how we can finance your dream car and home.
· TT: Tlo bone ha ngoale e khiba papatsong ea Standard Lesotho Bank ea makoloi le matlo ka moqebelo oa la 09 Tsitoe Msu Mall ho tloha ka 10 hoseng. Ho boha ke mahala [SLB].
The target text provided new information as seen in example 7 above: Nakong ea ha letsete le eso butsoe, motseteli h’a lumelloa ho ntša chelete letseteng lena ho fihlela ha nako ea ho butsoa hoa lona e fihlile, e leng nako e lumellanoeng ke banka le motseteli, which can be translated as, “when the investment period is not yet over, the investor is not allowed to withdraw from the investment, as was agreed by the investor and the bank”. This illustrates an instance where the target text audience is provided with information which may benefit or alert the customers regarding terms and conditions of the investments. However, there is no such information in the source text. As a result, this shows an imbalance between the source and target text audiences.
Furthermore, this has great impact on the source text audience as they are not notified that they cannot withdraw money from the investment as long as the investment period is not over. The source text audiences are likely to go to the bank to try to withdraw some money when they have financial problems that need immediate attention like a funeral or children school fees if they were not aware of such a condition; but get disappointed when they discover it is not permissible for them to withdraw money from the investment account. This has significant impact on the source text audience because they may feel betrayed or crooked by the bank when they are denied access to their savings.
Also, the bank is likely to lose some clients as people may consider it disloyal to them and not worthy for them to open investments with it due to this kind of imbalances in their documents. The researchers believe that the translator’s background knowledge might have contributed in the addition of this information or that the translator came across this form of information embedded in the document. In Lesotho, there are people who are forced by circumstances to open bank accounts and if the employees of the banks may not give them detailed information or if they (customer or employee) missed a point, the customers are likely to be misinformed. These include farmers, factory workers, mine workers, drivers, just to mention a few, who are required to open bank accounts in order to enable some payments to be processed. The majority of these people are illiterate and need to be attended by people who are patient and willing to repeat information as much as possible. For instance, Standard Lesotho Bank offers various investment accounts which allow people to withdraw at different times. There is Pure Save Account which allows customers to make one withdrawal per month; 32 Days Call Account where one can withdraw after 32 days and Fixed Deposits with different periods. As a result, there is a possibility of approaching the bank for withdrawal at a wrong time.
Similarly, in example (8), the phrase ho boha ke mahala, meaning “viewing is free”, is also not traceable in the source text because it is introduced for the first time in the target text. This is considered significant impact on the actual meaning of the source text because they introduce information which may change the intended meaning of the source text. This added information causes an imbalance between the source and target texts because the target text audience know that they do not have to a pay to view the Car and Home Expo, while the source text audience are clueless about that information. Consequently, the source text audience may possibly lose their chance of viewing the cars and homes in the Expo due to the fact that this information is hidden from them. This might deny them access to get loans from the same bank to buy new cars or homes seen during the Expo.
Moreover, Expos are meant to attract more clients into the business and provision of all necessary information can be of great benefit to the company as people will respond in the way the company expects them to. The researchers therefore believe that, this new information provided in the target text may not only affect the audience, but the company may also suffer if attendance is not good due to customers’ assumptions that they have to pay entrance fee. Fairclough (1995) states that low level choices that entail single clauses and single words within them can have significant ideological effects.
The above examples introduce brand new information that is not traceable in the source text. As a result, this benefits the target audience while the source audience are deprived such information. Consequently, not only the source text audience may suffer but the companies may also have to pay for the imbalance caused by these additions.
(b) Meaning shift additions
Meaning shift occurs when items used in the target language bring either partial or full changes in the meaning of a source language item (Catford, 1965) .
Example 9
ST: Group lending is another facility of Lesotho PostBank aimed at financing Basotho’s income generating projects at their communities as a group.
TT: Lesotho PostBank e kalima batho ba nang le merero ea ntlafatso e tlisang phaello [LPB].
Example 10
ST: Ability to expand the business.
TT: Ke tharollo bakeng sa kholiso le katoloso ea khoebo [LPB].
In example 9, the additions in the phrase e tlisang phaello “it brings interest” has twisted the meaning in the source text to be “income generating projects”. This gives the impression that the account is for all people who have projects and are interested in generating money and not groups. This addition has changed the initial meaning of the source text which clearly states that this form of account is meant for groups and not for individuals. It therefore has a significant impact on the target text audience as it misinforms them on who can and cannot be lend money. Consequently, this information may be deceiving and time consuming to the target audience who may end up deciding to abandon their duties to go and opening accounts with certain expectations of increasing their money due to the misleading information they got. Additionally, the bank is likely to lose more clients and investors due to misleading information provided in the target text. It is also likely to lose its reputation as people might regard it as unethical and dishonest to its customers. Motjope (2006: p. 43) states that, “inaccurate translation would no doubt increase the probability of inappropriate and irrelevant reactions”. This statement justifies the point that the target audiences are likely to respond in a different way from the source text audience due to an addition that lead them astray. Furthermore, this kind of additions result in the target text and source text not being coherent as the fifth rule of Skopos theory indicates that, a target text must be coherent with the source text (Reiss & Vermeer, 1984: p. 119) .
In example 10, the phrase “Ability to expand the business” is translated as Ke tharollo bakeng sa kholiso le katoloso ea khoebo. Here, the phrase Ke tharollo means “it is a resolution/solution” which has nothing to do with the word ability. This also misleads the target audience as the meaning is no longer similar to the one in the source text.
The above types of additions demonstrate the significant impact on both the source and target audiences as the information they provide seem to be one sided. These additions also violate the maxim of quantity and relevance due to extra information they offer in one text which are not even relevant in the given context or do not go in line with the intended meaning of the source text.
3.4. Implicitation Strategy with Significant Impact
Here, syntactic implicitation seemed to be the only strategy with significant impact.
(a) Syntactic implicitation
In this type of implicitation, not only words are omitted, even sentences are also left out.
Example 11
· ST: You can now get a Personal loan with enhanced features like cash back on your payment, funeral benefit and life-cover. Join SLB Group scheme now. Call 22212221
· TT: Ka mokitlane oa Std Lesotho Bank Group scheme, u ka fumana karolo ea chelete eo u e patetseng, patala ea mokitlane kaofela ha lefu le hlaha le matseliso ho lelapa._______[SLB].
Example 12
· ST: Direct deposit into the account is permitted.
· TT: ____________________________________ [LPB].
Here, a sentence present in the source text is left out in the target text, and this deprives the target audience the privilege to comprehend the intended meaning of the text. This is because the last sentence of example (11), that says, “Join SLB Group scheme now. Call 22212221”is missing in the target text, and it is connected to the previous sentence as it adds more meaning on the text for the audience to easily understand the text. In the example given above, it is not easy for the target audience to comprehend or even assume the intended meaning due to the missing sentence which forms a crucial part of the text. Furthermore, lack of provision of contact numbers hinder the target audience from calling to get clarity on the information provided to them, and also to know that they can join the scheme at any time as indicated in the source text. Molina and Albir (2002) point out that omission is an unjustifiable suppression of elements in the source text. This is to say, omissions deny the target text audience information which is present in the source text causing non-equivalence between the source and target text. Consequently, this results in a text not fulfilling its translational goal as the source and target audience may respond differently to the information offered to them. This instance therefore flouts the maxim of relevance as the contributions made by the target text do not convey full sense of the text (Venuti, 2000) .
Furthermore, in example (12), there is no information provided in the target text regarding means of deposit permissible into ones account as presented in the source text. Motjope (2006: p. 41) points out that, “some translations do not resemble their original and in most cases the inaccuracies are unnecessary”. This seems to be the case with example (12) as there was no point in omitting the information because it is not embedded in the source text where it would be anticipated that they could derive it. This results into an imbalance between the source and target texts as the target audiences are in the dark when it comes to this information.
One may conclude that the above examples do not offer all the information that the target audience deserves. The target audience is denied the liberty they ought to have in terms of opening accounts and joining schemes like the source text audience. It is also a disadvantage to the company which advocates that people should join the scheme because it is likely that the target audience might not join the scheme. As a result, the scheme may not be beneficial to the bank which might have initiated the scheme with the intention of helping people and generating profit. Besides, there is no coherence between the presentations of information in the target text, causing misunderstanding for the target audience. Additionally, lack of provision of information in the target text goes against the second rule of Skopos that states, a target text is an offer of information in the target community (TC) and target language (TL) concerning an offer of information in the source community (SC) and source language (SL) (Reiss & Vermeer, 1984: p. 119) .
4. Conclusion
The study established that some of the strategies which translators utilized when trying to solve challenges encountered during the process of translation have minimal and significant impact on both the source and target text audiences. Elaborating additions, explicating additions and semantic implicitation were considered as strategies that have minimal impact on both the source and target audience. Regardless of all the additions and omission committed, the texts still conveyed their intended meanings. New information additions, meaning shift additions and syntactic implicitation were found to be the strategies that have significant impact on both the source and target text audience as they do not provide them with equal access to the same information. New information additions introduced foreign information in the target text which served as an eye opener to the target audience, while depriving the source text audience with the same information. This was seen in example 7, where the sentence, Nakong ea ha letsete le eso butsoe, motseteli h’a lumelloa ho ntša chelete letseteng lena ho fihlela ha nako ea ho butsoa hoa lona e fihlile, e leng nako e lumellanoeng ke banka le motseteli, which can be translated as, “when the investment period is not yet over, the investor is not allowed to withdraw from the investment, as was agreed by the investor and the bank” was added in the target text. This information might have benefited or alerted the target text customers regarding terms and conditions of the investments. However, there is no such information in the source text. As a result, this shows an imbalance between the source and target text audiences. This is likely to have great impact on the source text audience as they were not notified that they could not withdraw money from the investment as long as the investment period was not over. This dissemination of information caused an imbalance between the source and target audience leading to message distortion and different responses from the audiences. Meaning shift additions also seemed to have twisted the meaning of the source text as was seen in example 9, where the phrase, e tlisang phaello “it brings interest”, appeared as, “income generating projects”. This gives the impression that the account is for all people who have projects and are interested in generating money and not groups. This addition has changed the initial meaning of the source text which clearly states that this form of account is meant for groups and not for individuals. Here, the target text audience was misinformed and this information might be deceiving. Additionally, the banks were likely to lose some clients and investors due to misleading information provided in the target text. Syntactic implicitation deprived the target text audience some important information as was observed in examples 11 and 12, where the target text was missing some information. As a result, it was not easy for the target audience to comprehend or even assume the intended meaning due to the missing parts which formed a crucial part of the text. Furthermore, lack of provision of contact numbers might have hindered the target audience from calling the bank for clarity where necessary.
5. Recommendation
The study recommends that Lesotho PostBank and Standard Lesotho Bank translators should opt for strategies that will not be of advantage to one group and disadvantage to the other. That is, if explicitation and implicitation are applied in the translation, translators should use those with minimal impact and avoid those that may have significant one. This is because not only customers suffer, but the banks are also likely to lose more clients. Training workshops and refresher courses for the existing translators could also assist the banks and the community. It is also recommended that financial institutions should provide translators with detailed translation briefs which will guide them on how to go about the translation process.
Notes
The study is based on Teboho Mphi’s Masters’ Thesis.